Best iPhone photos of 2017

The iPhone Photography Awards received thousands of entries submitted by photographers from over 140 different countries. The IPP Awards is the longest running iPhone photography contest in the world from last 10 years. Established in 2007, the competition has been acknowledging creative phone photography since before the days of Instagram.

This year’s Grand Prize winner is Sebastian Tomada, from New York, USA. His image shows children roaming the streets in Qayyarah near fire and smoke coming from oil wells set alight by IS militants.

Here are some of the other winners.

Grand Prize Winner, Photographer of the Year

Sebastiano Tomada

Children of Qayyarah

Grand Prize Winner, Photographer of the Year

iPhone 6s

“Children roam the streets in Qayyarah near the fire and smoke billowing from oil wells, set ablaze by ISIS militants.”

Photographer of the Year

Brendan O Se

Cork, Ireland
1st Place, Photographer of the Year

iPhone 6s

Dock Worker

“I shot this photo on an early morning photo walk around the docks in Jakarta in April 2016. These were the hands of a dock worker who was taking a break. I was struck by the texture created by the accumulated dirt on his hands.”

Abstract

Christopher Armstrong

Sydney, Australia

1st Place – Abstract

“I’ve always sought to connect to the viewer though notions of beauty and the sublime and this has continued to shape my image making. I am striving to capture the luminous tones of light, ones that glow and transport. I hope to touch the viewer with simply beauty but also to connect to the history of art making as I reference and am inspired by other practitioners.”

Animals

Francesca Tonegutti

Milan, Italy

1st Place – Animals

Yeguizo“The photo is shot after a dressage-clinique at the stable “Cuadra de la luz” in Chiclana de la Frontera , Andalucia, Spain. The horse in the photo is my horse, Yeguizo. He was resting and drying on the sun, looking at me.”

iPhone 6

The America I Know

Juan Carlos Castañeda

Astoria NY, United States

1st Place – The America I Know

“These pictures were taken on December 5th, 2016 at Standing Rock, North Dakota. That day the water protectors, the people standing up for the Sioux tribe were supposed to get evicted by the Morton County Sheriff’s Department. Thousands of veterans came to the aid of those of us who were protesting. They told us that they had vowed to protect this country from all enemies, foreign and domestic. President Obama announced that the Dakota Access Pipeline had to be halted until an investigation was made. The veterans still marched on that afternoon and made sure to let everyone know that they were there helping protect Standing Rock. Mother Nature stepped in that day with a blizzard of 40 to 50 mph winds with temperatures of -30F. The height of the storm and the march was captured with the photo that was selected for first place. Everyone there stood until it was physically impossible to continue. Shortly after that picture was taken everyone had to go back to camp and the officers on the other side of the bridge had to leave as well. It was a great reminder of who truly was in charge.”

iPhone 7 Plus

Architecture

Paddy Chao

Taipei, Taiwan

1st Place – Architecture

Chand Baori
“This photo was taken when I was traveling in India. Chand Baori consists of 3,500 narrow steps over 13 storeys. It extends approximately 30 meters into the ground making it one of the deepest and largest stepwells in India. I marveled these elegant stepwells and shadows, I immediately took out my camera and captured this beautiful scene before it was gone.”

iPhone 7 Plus

Children

Szymon Felkel

Poznan, Poland

1st Place – Children

“The photo titled “Children’s curiosity” was taken in August 2015 in New York at the Time Square”

Flowers

Sidney Po

Cebu, Philippines

1st Place – Floral

“About 20km southeast of Cebu City where I live is Cordova town which belongs to Mactan Island. This place has become a tourist (both local and foreign) attraction especially at night when all the white LED roses lit up.”

Landscape

Christian Horgan

Fremantle, Australia

1st Place – Landscape

Singing Rock“I captured this image in the Margaret River region of Western Australia. It’s my second home, and one of the most spectacular places on earth. This was taken on the coast at Wyadup Rocks, and is called Singing Rock. I was swimming there with family when I was drawn to it by the sound of it’s song as the wind whistled through it, and just had to capture this image.”

Lifestyle

Nick Trombola

Pittsburgh, PA USA

1st Place – Lifestyle

“I went on a ski trip to Telluride, Colorado last winter with some friends. On the second morning we were already outside before the trails even opened for the day, so we were one of the first groups on the lift. The snow was perfectly white and mostly undisturbed because the only people who were on the Mountain before us were locals who had houses higher than our hotel. On our way up we passed over a group of three skiers, and I thought that they contrasted so well against the snow and our skis in the foreground that I quickly dug my iPhone out of my jacket and took the shot.”

Nature

Aaron Sandberg

Chicago IL, United States

1st Place – Nature

“I took this photo in late June of 2016 while in Sigtuna, Sweden. I used my old iPhone 6s (native camera) then did some light post-processing with Snapseed, Photoshop Fix, and VSCO. This photo didn’t need too much editing at all unlike some of my others—nature did most of the work here. This was the best shot out of maybe a dozen or so captures.”

News/Events

Samuel Nacar

Albacete, Spain

1st Place – News/Events

The nomads of Europe
“Monday 24th of October started the eviction of the biggest migrant camp in Europe named The Jungle, located in northern France only 5 kilometers away from the city of Calais. On Wednesday 26th of October the camp was set on fire and thousands of migrants had to leave, some of them were relocated while others were not.In this photograph you can see thousands of migrants being evicted from the camp due to the many fires.”

Others

Darren Boyd

London, United Kingdom

1st Place – Other

“This photo, Late Night Dumpling Run, was taken in China Town, London, on the celebrated Chinese New Year, 29th January 2017.”

Panorama

Nick Trombola

Pittsburg PA, United States

1st Place – Panorama

“This photo was taken at the American cemetery in Normandy, France in March 2016 as my best attempt to do it justice. There is a kind of indescribably transcendent quality to the memorial that I’ve never really felt anywhere else. It remains to this day my favorite place I’ve ever been, and the way the sun reflects off the perfect white headstones in this photo always remind me of the feeling of wholeness I have when I go there.”

People

Dina Alfasi

Israel

1st Place – People

“I shoot mostly street scenes and portraits, trying to capture intimate moments. Every day I get to work by train and bus. For two hours every day I’m in a place with different people. At first, to pass the time, I was just observing them and trying to guess where they’re going, what they are dealing with, or what their story may be. Along with this observation, I noticed intimate moments and so I started to take photos, and I was surprised with the result.”

Portrait

Gabriel Ribeiro

Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil

1st Place – Portrait

“This photo was taken in January of that year, my aunt came from Bahia to Campo Grande and my cousin was with me when I had the idea of doing a picture of him, we went to the nearest window and began to photograph using natural light. My main goal was to capture the depth that a look can achieve, especially when it comes to children. I used the Lightroom Mobile app along with Snapseed to get the final result.”

Series Image of Structure

Joshua Sarinana

Cambridge MA, United States

1st Place – Series

Image of Structure “ I always have at least one camera with me at all times, and now that I have a toddler most of my images are made between work and home. Because I work across the street from the Stata Center — which contains the Computer Science and Artificial Laboratory (CSAIL) and Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — I come across the building several times a day. It’s an easy building to shoot in that it lends itself to photography, and I’m constantly bumping into people taking a photo of it. However, it’s difficult to make a unique image of the building that stands out from the plethora of photos online.”

Still Life

David Hayes

Milford OH, United States

1st Place – Still Life

Over“I’ve been working in the still life genre for the last several years and like styling vignettes such as this one. I had recently seen several other images that had used a smoking candle and wanted to see what I could do with that concept.”

Sunset

Kuanglong Zhang

Guangdong, China

1st Place – Sunset

“The sunset and the Golden Temple in Amritsar add radiance and beauty to each other. The ripple in water seems to be formed by doves’ flapping of wings. I think photography is derived from life, and only people who love life can take a picture of temperature.”

Travel

Jen Pollack Bianco

Seattle WA, United States

1st Place – Travel

Snow + Fishing Cottages = WinHamnoy, Norway“I shot this image on a bridge in Norway’s Lofoten Islands overlooking Reinefjord towards Olstinden. The red cabins are traditional fishing cottages. I try to push myself outside of my comfort zone photographically a few times a year, and this year I headed to the arctic in February. I took this shot just after sunrise during a snowstorm. The colors changed every few minutes, and the snowfall was heavy at times changing the moody dramatically from minute to minute. It was a classic “wait for the light” situation. It was amazingly atmospheric and beautiful, but very cold and windy. I shot this image using the native camera app on my iPhone 7 plus. The light was beautiful and I and used a touch of the Instagram Clarendon filter, which punched up the blue in the water. I’ve always been a fan of sunsets but photographing sunrise can be just as magical.”

Trees

Magali Chesnel

Ferney-Voltaire, France

1st Place – Trees

“Stormy winds have swept across Europe this winter, with Siberian temperatures transforming trees in wonderful icy show in Versoix, a little town close to Geneva, in Switzerland. After a conjunction of intense cold (-10 to -18 degrees Centigrade), with very strong winds, blowing at over 100 kmh, the waves from the Leman Lake got so harsh that they passed over the dikes and the droplets immediately froze everything they touched, including the trees. Braving the frozen ground, I took this photograph, early in the morning.

I am constantly amazed with ways Nature can create beautiful designs and compositions. I really enjoy having the flexibility of stretching my wings, in order to explore all the moments that life has to offer to photography. When the moment is captured, causing an emotion is my ultimate objective.”